This application relates to the construction and use of devices for delivery of moxabustion or medicaments in general and particularly to devices for making use of moxabustion or other medicaments easier. It also relates to the use of continuous pressure delivery at acupuncture-type/shiatsu points.
Moxabustion is a well known therapeutic agency commonly used in the practice of the forms of medicine derived from ancient Chinese culture, commonly thought of as acupuncture or Traditional Chinese Medicine and also known as Traditional Oriental Medicine, called TCM or TOM herein. Particular formulations of the herb Mugwort are known and currently used by burning it against the skin of a patient where the delivery of heat and xe2x80x9cmoxaxe2x80x9d is thought to be desirable by the acupuncturist. While it is certainly possible to employ other medicaments for therapy in the same manner as Moxa is applied, the most common herbal concoction burned near the skin of someone under treatment is called Moxa, so the treatment is generally referred to as moxabustion. (xe2x80x9cMedicamentsxe2x80x9d as used this document can cover any herbal or oil or mixture of use in xe2x80x9cTraditional Chinesexe2x80x9d or oriental or other medical practices).
A brief mention of the use of Moxa is made in THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHINESE MEDICINE, By Giovanni Maciocia, published copyright 1989 and reprinted through 1998, page 463 and 464 where the author suggests that the Zhongwan Ren 12 point be used for tonifying stomach and spleen Chi especially in combined with Stomach-36. He states that xe2x80x9cNt is the best point to use, particularly with moxa, for Empty-Cold patterns of the stomach and Spleen. This could be used directly on the point with moxa cones, or the point can be heated with a moxa stick, or a xe2x80x9cmoxa boxxe2x80x9d can be applied on the area around the point.xe2x80x9d He then describes a moxa box. A perhaps modern version of something like a moxa box is found described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,438.
Mainly perhaps due to to efforts of Tae Woo Yoo, a form of acupuncture known as Korean Hand Therapy has started to be practiced in America. In this form of acupuncture the traditional acupuncture points are translated or referred to points the hands of the patient, and the hand points are stimulated rather than or in conjunction with the body points. The Ren channel runs down the center of the palm in this system and the tip of the second finger is the equivalent of the patient""s face, where the Ren channel will meet the Du Mai channel that will run down the back of the hand. The first and third finger are arms and the little finger and thumb are the legs.
There are also other referent systems (also called xe2x80x9cmicro-systemsxe2x80x9d) that are taught in other medical practices focusing on feet, hands, ears, face, head or even the nose.
It is to be understood that the invention herein can be used with any traditional system or with any referent system (or micro-system) as the practitioner desires or finds useful. The Korean Hand Therapy system (also known as the Koryo Hand Therapy system, and a similar system is referred to as Su Gi(pronounced suu gee)) is described herein first because it provides the most practical first use of the first envisioned embodiments of this invention. This invention can also be used to supplement the or traditional whole body systems as will become apparent in the detailed description.
The application of moxa formulations has been adapted to the Korean Hand Therapy by Dr. Yoo in his inventions described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,549,960 and 5,487,883, incorporated by this reference for their disclosure in their entireties. In the use of these devices, it has been found that the regulation of the time of moxa application and the accuracy of patient use of the devices is not always optimal. Further there is a difficulty in getting American patients to burn little sticks stuck to their hands (let alone stuck to other parts of their bodies).
Accordingly, an improvement that could avail the patient of an easy way to apply moxa to him/herself outside the presence of the practitioner, would be quite helpful. It would be more helpful still if the positioning of the moxa delivery could be done with accuracy and ease. Further it would be of benefit if the moxa delivery system could deliver moxa to multiple points at one time. Still further it would be of benefit if the moxa delivery system could deliver heated moxa without the need of burning a flame, striking a match and so forth. Yet further it would be advantageous if a moxa delivery system could deliver a regulated and/or adjustable amount of heat, and even further if that could be done on a timed basis.
The same or a similarly constructed device may be used to deliver pressure alone, without the moxa. A construction allowing a plurality of points to be activated by pressure continuously is formed by the construction described herein for the delivery of moxa, but it may be simplified if used only for the delivery of pressure. (Delivery of pressure may of course be supplemented with tonifying or sedating herbs or by application of gold or silver contact points as will be described within in greater detail with reference to preferred embodiments). For such use a bar may be substituted for the channel containing fixture and points may be secured in any manner along the bar as desired. The bar can then be strapped to the patient in position as desired, activating each of the points by the pressure of the strap. For this construction too, Tae Woo Yoo""s patent on a moxabusting implement, U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,960, and Shie""s Moxa burner mount for multiple moxa burners, U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,438 may be the closest prior art, and are hereby incorporated by this reference in their entireties. Good Medical (a Korean company) provides a commercially available example of the moxabusting implement described in the Yoo patent. Similar products for sticking burning moxa or other medicament formulae to the skin of a patient can be found for example in the Ibuki Moxa forms of Chosei-kyu and Urashima from the company OMS Medical Supplies of Braintree, Massachusetts.
For either of these devices or the Good Medical form of stick on device, practitioners recommend using various skin shields so as not to burn the patients. These shields are placed on the skin first and disperse the heat. An example is also found in the OMS Medical Supplies catalog and called Kyu-ten-shi. Thus a layer of dispersal material is placed on the point, the layer stuck to the point with adhesive, and the adhesive stick on moxa device stuck to the layer of dispersal material. Therefore it is clear that it is difficult to regulate the heat applied to the skin through the use of these simple stick-on devices and that some easier to control device is needed.
The inventive structures taught in this application can be applied to healing surgical wounds and procedures by providing chi channel reconstructive tools for the practitioner of TOM.
Toward any or all of these improvements this invention is hereby disclosed.
The invention is a new method and apparatus for delivery of moxa, or for delivery of any of the cornucopia of herbs which may be applied with heat or burning. It provides a point delivery rod through which the heat and/or moxa can be delivered, held in a fixture which can be held firmly in a fixed relationship to the patient""s body. Preferably a resistive heater is disposed so as to provide heat either directly or indirectly to the rod and the moxa or other substance that contacts or is held near to the body acupuncture point (or points) of interest. Herbal oils or extracts can also be released through the pores or channels or applied directly to the skin before and during the use of these appliances if desired.
In one preferred embodiment a head structure is attached to the rod and the head and rod assembly is moveable within a channel. The channel may contain a plurality of head and rod assemblies. The channel may be straight or curved, or bent as desirable for the particular area of application. A standoff or standoffs may be provided to stabilize a fixture containing the channel above the skin of the patient. Setscrews or top screws, wing nuts, or other common movement limiting means and structures may be provided to hold the head and rod assembly in a certain location within the channel, or the channel itself may be compressed to hold the head and rod assemblies at chosen locations within the channel, or compression of the fixture and its standoffs against the skin may be used to hold the assemblies in place.
Preferrably, either the space around the rod or the center of the rod provide egress of moxa (or other medicaments) to the skin during heating. The body of the rod and the head may contain a moxa passage channel of various forms of construction. The fixture channel may be sealed and contain the moxa itself.
The moxa (and/or various herbs and herbal formulations) may be in any form but powdered or liquid form are most commonly used. In one embodiment the moxa or other substance can be delivered in pre packaged forms for insertion into the head and rod assembly. This assembly can be called a delivery device, or a plug, and may not look like a rod and head if desired.
The tip of the rod may contain a porous ceramic area to allow the moxa to move through it or it may be open if desired. Alternatively it may be made of a stone, preferably porous or marble which can be heated and simply dipped into a liquid moxa solution or oil preparation.
The rods may alternatively provide points of pressure (or polarization) rather than moxa delivery means for some forms of therapy. For this purpose they may be heat-insulated from the fixture if the rest of the rods will be used for moxa delivery, or not if a combined therapy is desirable. They may advantageously be coated in silver or gold and may have a relatively sharp point at the end to contact the skin. Alternatively the tips of various sizes and shapes may be changeable metal tips or have flecks of metal or moxa on them. Also, polarization through the use of magnetic fields, whether through the inclusion of permanent magnetic material or electromagnets may be advantageously employed for selective tonification or sedation of the point of contact in any embodiment mentioned herein where they employ other forms of tonification or sedation through contact. Because magnets have fields that extend beyond themselves, if magnetic fields are used, the fixtures may be positioned above the surface if desired. For a short-handed word to comprise all these applications, the word xe2x80x9cforcexe2x80x9d may be used to include such concepts as polarization, heat, pressure, medicament delivery, and so forth.
Although the first embodiments are designed for human use, application to animals is certainly expected.